Wednesday, April 18, 2012

From Cynthia McKinney: Invitation to The International Human Rights Association of American Minorities Convention in Chicago

The International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM) is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations. Don't miss out!From CIVIL RIGHTS to HUMAN RIGHTS and SELF-DETERMINATION?

CHICAGO CONFERENCE 2012 AGENDAYOU DONT NEED TO JUST SAVE THE DATE APRIL 20-21, 2012, you need to REGISTER NOW.

The International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM) is an NGO in Consultative Status with the United Nations.
We invite you to participate in the forthcoming Chicago conference on April 20-21, 2012, and join confirmed speakersCynthia McKinney, Law Professors Vernalia Randall and Carla D. Pratt, Political Science Professor Tyson King-Meadows, Attorneys Dr. Ava Muhammad, Chokwe Lumumba and Standish Willis, multiple HBCU past president Dr. John Waddell, National Black Farmer's Association President John Boyd and Queen Quet of the Gullah-Geechee Nation, as well as international legal experts and UN representatives, in exploring the potential of international human rights to advance the African American struggle.
IHRAAM views this conference as a major mechanism – perhaps the only such opportunity for some time to come – to engage this range of African-American thinkers, opinion makers, committed activists and students in discussing the potential that international legal paradigms of internal self-determination might hold for African American collective development within the United States.

The victorious Civil Rights struggle has witnessed the ultimate achievement of nondiscrimination in the election of the first Black President of the United States. But even now, as the crises related to US financial and military policies deepen, we see that the advances hoped for, and some of which were gained through affirmative action, have begun to erode.Affirmative action is now under sustained attack and might not survive the next round in the US Supreme Court.

This message, sent during an election year, may find many wondering just what concrete advances the African American community as a whole can count on from this momentous achievement, if the issues and needs specific to the African American national minority cannot be put on the national political agenda of any party, let alone that of the first US president of African descent. Even in the face of a lack of benefit accruing to the African American people as a whole through the polls, there is a determined effort to reduce African Americans' voting impact through redistricting and excessive incarceration.
Policies of civil rights and equality before the law have failed to take the African American community as a whole as far forward as it needs and has the human and international legal right to go. How can this be addressed, if the existing political system can only produce leadership that is mandated and purports to address the needs of all the population, to the disproportionate neglect of the African American people?
Professor Francis A. Boyle, leading US expert on international law, will be a featured banquet speaker, addressing"AFRICAN AMERICANS' RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION. Don't let this pass you by. Come and explore the possibilities! Take a look at the Conference AGENDA and REGISTER NOW!